WWE Superstar Ali has been releasing a series of promos recently that have had a distinctly different aesthetic—especially when compared to WWE’s typical output.
Ali may be in front of the camera, but the man behind the lens is Craig Mitchell.
Mitchell recently spoke with the WINCLY podcast. They discussed their series of vignettes as well as the creative freedom WWE has allowed them.
He said that Ali came to him, explaining “‘Hey, they’re not giving me this, they’re not giving me the screen time to develop my character.’ And what we were able to do was – fine, we’ll film it, we’ll put it on your Instagram, they’re self-produced,” Mitchell explained.
“If they’re giving you the ability to use your social media how you want to do it, let’s do it,” he continued. “And we joked like, ‘Wouldn’t it be kind of funny if these videos get a lot of eyes on them and you can end up getting them on SmackDown and stuff. And that ended up working out, so I think that’s one of the coolest things that we were able to accomplish.”
Creative Freedom
Mitchell confesses that WWE naturally has influence over their videos, from vocabulary to ensuring their intended content is WWE suitable.
“I would say that it’s a vocabulary thing, for sure. We want to make sure that the words we’re saying—we don’t want to use any offensive words or anything like that,” Mitchell said.
“I think that was something we always wanted to make sure that was very clean and appealing to all. But I think the other influence would be now, with this, I think we would also want to make sure that the subject matter [of the videos] is approved. So we wouldn’t want to talk about anything that [WWE] would deem something that they wouldn’t want to have on TV. So I wouldn’t say it’s very vague, but it has to be more inclusive, especially because Ali right now is representing something for a lot of people and he’s in a very positive light. To keep that rolling, I would say that the subject matter needs to be very inclusive.”
Mitchell praised Ali’s promo ability, saying that he finds a way to connect with the audience due to his relatability. He adds that Ali has a way of taking an idea and running with it, allowing his words and actions to put him “into the light.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
